Decline Pressing From the Floor

Some of you might already be aware of this, but I never realized that one could perform decline presses from the floor just by bridging at the hips. I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to achieve a full ROM, but this wasn’t the case.

I’ve always loved me some decline pressing, but I don’t have a decline bench in my garage gym (or at Gold’s Gym in Phoenix or Revolution Training in Tempe for that matter). My friend on Facebook, Simon Headland, suggested that I give these a try, and I loved them.

On Friday I did two sets of bench press, two sets of incline press, and two sets of decline press (shown below) for a nice little upper body pressing workout. Give these a try if you enjoy decline pressing but don’t have access to a decline bench.

12 Comments

The latissimus are three times longer, two times thicker and have a better bio-mechanical attachment onto the shoulder than the pectorals do.
So why are most people stronger in the front than in the back?.

@ Herbert
First don’t get me wrong, I love me some lats but what do you have against pressing?
1) What do you mean better bio mechanical attachment? for what? If your talking about pure anatomical location both the lats and pec major insert on the humerus very close together on the intertubicular groove. The lats are on the floor of said groove and the the pecs are slightly more lateral.

2) As far as functionality your lats are major glenohumeral extensors, adductors, scapular depressors, internal rotational and can also anterior rotate your pelvis which goes along with a gross spinal extension pattern. Your pecy’s participate in a lot of shoulder horizontal adduction, shoulder flexion and internal rotation in the anatomical position (this was the cliff notes version). However take note that for most movements we are not in the anatomical position and it is important to keep in mind the origin and insertion when figuring out what is going on. The bottom line is for certain movements the pecs will have a greater mechanical advantage and for certain movements the lats will have a greater mechanical advantage. Overall we should strive to be strong all over.

3) if you mean to comment on how most people neglect their backs in the gym and or have monday-friday chest days than proceed haha,

@Herbert – not everyone is…I’m stronger with chins/pulldowns/rows than military/incline/bench/decline/dips. I think people are naturally suited for pressing or pulling depending on their anatomy. As to why most people are stronger though – it’s their training. They do bench first in their workouts, first in the week (International Bench Press Mondays), and multiple times per week. What gets prioritized gets the best adaptations.

Hi Bret,
some fair comments guys, but instead of the push & pull debate,back or front,or which has priority,give them both 100% super set a push with a pull..e.g. floor press,bent row or dip chin up etc gives superb synergy ……..very productive….balance is the key….right….!!!

The inclined bench press gets in some gratuitous glute work as well. I’ve done it in a Body Pump class with 5 minute sets at 40-50. Me, I couldn’t hold the pose for that long and dropped back to regular presses. The instructor, the great Toni Dee, mentioned glute activation.

Ha! I used to do these with a f**k-off sandbag in my parents’ garage when I was a youth! It’s an interesting alternative to regular declines but I would suggest sticking to the bench (if one is available).